A new analysis of Michigan schools finds that some attendance interventions are materially more effective at reducing chronic absenteeism than others, offering a clearer playbook for student success teams. The study reports that before the pandemic, more than 3 out of 5 students were chronically absent in many Michigan schools; after reopening, chronic absenteeism rose toward 4 out of 5 students in the state’s worst-attended schools. Researchers at the University of Michigan–Flint and Wayne State University focused on students who switched schools—such as transitions from middle to high school—to better isolate which school practices improved attendance rather than measuring who self-selected into better environments. The researchers analyzed roughly 2,700 schools from 2022 to 2025 and found that schools in the top quarter of attendance improvement had students attending about seven more days per year than comparable students in the bottom quarter. The study identifies frequent home visits—daily or weekly—as the intervention most associated with those gains, while monthly or occasional visits showed no meaningful difference versus no visits. The work also suggests that attendance improvements were not short-lived, reinforcing that chronic absenteeism strategies may require persistence and high-touch outreach rather than sporadic engagement.